This Film Contains Depictions of Tobacco Consumption. Green Book.

This is part of the message within the full-page / full colour advertisement for the Oscar nominated “Green Book” in the New York Times Sunday Feb 10.19 edition.

Frankly, as a person who enjoys the tastes & aromas from premium cigars, I read those words as a big, warm “Welcome! Come on in
& enjoy the camaraderie that cigars provide”
But, I’m not naive to the potential of an
equal – but opposite – interpretation.

I sold advertising for 2 decades – newspaper / television / radio. Maybe times have changed, but I don’t ever recall the inclusion of a qualifier like this near the bottom of the page:

Like I said, I sold advertising for many, many years. Proof-reading was an essential part of the business. So, I get it if someone says “I don’t even know how you saw that”.
But I did. And now I can’t un-see it. It raises the question about when qualifiers like that started and where do they go from here? Why single out Tobacco Consumption?
Where’s the qualifier for all the other things that take place in every single movie that’s produced?

I’m just going to leave this here and come back to it when I’ve had a chance to investigate a little further.